Ramseur Chamber of Commerce hits the ground running

Ramseur Chamber of Commerce hits the ground running

RAMSEUR — The new Ramseur Chamber of Commerce adopted official bylaws on Tuesday and is now ready to accept new members.

The organization was established on Jan. 14 after a vote to determine if the town should stick with the Main Street Merchants Association or create a chamber. The votes for a chamber won.

“The purpose of doing the chamber is to be able to include all of Ramseur and surrounding areas, not just the downtown merchants,” said John York, one of the organizers. “We want to get people excited and on board about the chamber. We are here to make the community aware of what we have to offer. It will be open to anyone and everyone in the community, the county, the state.”

The merchants association was formed 23 years ago. Its focus was on Ramseur’s downtown businesses; businesses located outside the city limits could not be members.

With a chamber, any interested business, person or non-profit can become members. Members are those who share a common concern in the community’s socioeconomic status and want to get things accomplished. There are no restrictions placed on the number or kinds of members.

The Ramseur chamber will soon have a board of directors. Once elected, the board will adopt policies and rules for conducting business. A nominating committee has been formed to seek out prospective members who will each serve a one-year term, not to exceed four consecutive years. The committee will submit nominees on June 17.

The elected board’s job is to determine policies and procedures and to set goals. A president typically presides over board meetings while day-to-day operations are handled by a manager, generally a paid employee. Smaller communities, such as Ramseur, may have a volunteer fill this role.

“We are starting to hear from other towns that they are excited that we are doing this,” York added. “We have such a good core group of people and want everyone to know that we are all working together. If we can continue, we can reflect back in years to come and realize what it has become and be proud that we were a part of it.”

Memberships are broken down into: Senior member ($10); non-profit member ($25); member ($50); business member, 1-15 employees ($125); business member, 15 and above employees ($250); and sponsor ($500).

Currently, new members that sign up will get a bonus six months of membership running through Dec. 31, 2015.

The first request came from the Ramseur Farmer’s Market, which was born from a project of the NC STEP program. Since the program will end on June 30, the market committee asked to become a chamber function.

Becky Frazier and Sharon Wright, along with Linda Allred, were instrumental in getting the market off of the ground.

“We have been in existence for a year and our biggest concern has been in reaching out to the farmers and our community,” Frazier said. “Our location is our biggest disadvantage because people do not want to get off the beaten path to find anything.”

The farmer’s market was originally set up at Ramseur Lake, about a mile from the main highway running through Ramseur. Vendors were paying just $3 a week, but slowly stopped coming because the customers were not plentiful. The committee searched for a new location on U.S. 64 (Jordan Road), the main thoroughfare, and has been given permission to set up in the parking lot at Silver Dollar Gun & Pawn and the adjacent parking lot. This gives the market more visibility and is a prime location for travelers from Siler City and Asheboro.

“Our biggest drawback for our vendors was the location,” added Wright. “Hopefully (with the new location), they will come back. If we can get out on 64 and inside the city limits on a heavily traveled path, we will attract more vendors and customers.”

“All of the hard work everyone is bringing to the table is paying off,” York said. “Now we need to all work very hard to get the word out to everybody (that we are accepting new members). We all know it takes a lot of work, but we want to be sure to include anybody and everybody that wants to join.”

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The Ramseur Chamber of Commerce is located at 1538 Main St., Ramseur. For more information, call (336) 233-3209, email rccadmin@ramseurchamberofcommerce.com or visit its Facebook page at facebook.com/RamseurChamberofCommerce.